Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Lincoln Stars will host the Lancers on Tuesday night as the Stars look to distance themselves further from their arch rival from Omaha in the standings. This will be the sixth time the Stars and Lancers have faced each other. Lincoln leads the season series, three games to two. The Lancers have yet to beat the Stars at the Ice Box in Lincoln this season. The Lancers are winless on the road in their last four games.

Lincoln netminder Kevin Murdock is 2-0-1 in three games against the Lancers with a .933 save percentage and a 1.95 goal against average. Defenseman Jake Newton has 7 assists in five games against Omaha this season. Lincoln is coming off a dramatic OT win against the Sioux City Musketeers this past Saturday, in which Kevin Murdock stopped 33 of 36 shots on goal. Considering his record against the Lancer this season, and the fact that he had such a good game this past Saturday, I'd guess that Doc will be between the pipes Tuesday night.

The Lancers sport one of the hottest players in the USHL right now, forward Louis Leblanc. Leblanc has scored six goals in his last three games. He had a hat trick in two straight games against the Green Bay Gamblers and the Sioux Falls Stampede. The Lancers have a number of forwards on their team that are very good, and if left unchecked, can single-handedly beat hockey teams. The problem with this years Omaha squad as been lack of consistency, which some say comes from their new head coach, Bliss Littler. Goaltender Jeff Teglia started the season playing a majority of the games, but has played less as of late since the arrival of goaltender Kris Lazaruk. Lazaruk was brought in from the WHL to bolster the Omaha goaltending position, but has not done well at all. I don't expect Lazaruk to start in this game, as his last game in Lincoln was not impressive. Lazaruk gave up a ton of rebounds in that game and never looked comfortable.

This is a weird game to predict. Which Lincoln team will show up? Will it be the first place team that has easily beaten some of the top USHL teams this season? Or will it be the team that struggled in the third period against Sioux City this past Saturday? Same thing with Omaha. Will it be the team that dominated league-leading Green Bay this past Friday? Or will it be the team that looked like crap against the Sioux Falls Stampede on the very next night (Saturday)? Both teams have shown that they can play better than any team in the league. Fortunately for the Stars, Omaha has played much more inconsistent than Lincoln has this season, and it shows in the standings.